first wheat beer brewed..

well brewed my first wheat beer today.. i plan on adding raspberry in the second fermentor.. (btw.. im still trying to figure out how much to put in.. suggestions welcome!)

3.3 lbs light malt extract
4.95 lbs wheat malt extract
1 oz tettnanger hops (3.7% AA) (15 into the boil)

pitched Wyeast #3056 Bavarian Wheat

2.5 - 3 gallon boil...boiled total 60 mins.

racking into a 6.6 carboy.. can i just say..dang that stuff had some head on it.. ill be watching it very closely!

not real happy with my OG it was only 1.03 needless to say the recipe stated 1.052 .. looks like ill have a weak beer but im hoping the fruit will ferment some and help the alcohol levels out some..

also..is it really common for wheat beer to appear to have SOO much stuff in it? ill post a pic so you can see.. im excited and looking forward to it.. needless to say.. one more girly beer for the Sailman to have to put up with! oh well the lagernot turned out awesome.. hopefully this will be drinkable!

the wheat is on the left; the sweet mead that is fermenting is on the right (been bubbling now about a week!)

Don't know if you plan on using real fruit or extract, but a recipe posted on this forum called for 1.5-2 tablespoons of McCormick's Natural Raspberry Extract at bottling/kegging.

Wheats tend to be murky. I'm puzzled how you could have that much extract and such a low OG, you certainly didn't add too much water at the end. Maybe you didn't mix it enough before taking the gravity.

I'd put two pounds of raspberries in the secondary & check the flavor at a week. Personally, I just like a hint of fruit in my ales. Ciders are a different story, I do blackberry revenge at 50/50.

Gravity does not sound right at all... ProMash puts it at 1.060. Before you toss raspberrys in there I'd PM Pumbaa. He recently did... raspberrys or blackberrys and had a problem with a lot of floating stuff.... perhaps he figured out what he did. You could also use Oregon Fruit Puree if you want to go real easy on yourself. I used the Cherry puree and was very happy with the results. Was a pice of cake... open can and dump in secondary.

Edit....
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Expect it to go through a secondary fermentation when you toss whatever fruit you want to add to it. Be sure you have enough room. I used a 5 gal secondary carboy and PAID THE PRICE for my stupidity. Had a bit of a mess.....

ya know i didnt mix it up because what we did was pour the wort in the fermentor then we poured the water into the fermentor after throught a funnel... kinda thought that would mix it enough.. maybe thats why i got a low og...do you think that will cause a problem during fermenting or do you think ill be ok?

ill keep a watch on it and keep my fingers crossed..

wheat is definately much more murky ... and i was planning on using frozen raspberries.. i dont want it overpowering but i wanna taste some raspberry..

congrats - wheats are my favorite - wait till you taste you first uber fresh bottle. M M M

Beer Snob said:

Edit....
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Expect it to go through a secondary fermentation when you toss whatever fruit you want to add to it. Be sure you have enough room. I used a 5 gal secondary carboy and PAID THE PRICE for my stupidity. Had a bit of a mess.....

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yea i plan on racking it in the fermentor bucket instead of the carboy.. i dont have an open 6.6 carboy right now so i think that will be safer.. NOT about to put it in the 5 gallon one.. i think that Sailman would come after me with a vengence!

BeerLuvnGrl said:

ya know i didnt mix it up because what we did was pour the wort in the fermentor then we poured the water into the fermentor after throught a funnel... kinda thought that would mix it enough.. maybe thats why i got a low og...do you think that will cause a problem during fermenting or do you think ill be ok?

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this is definitely your issue. unless you forgot to add some extract.
it won't cause a problem during fermentation. the activity during fermentation will stir things up enough.

BeerLuvnGrl said:

ya know i didnt mix it up because what we did was pour the wort in the fermentor then we poured the water into the fermentor after throught a funnel...

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I'm very glad this worked out for you. Usually the reason you put the water in first is you could shatter the carboy if the wort is not cool enough. I would consider this a lucky experience.

we use a wort chiller so its already cooled when we pour it in the carboy!

and well its fermenting today.. so thats a good sign!!

ok now a question about the fruit...if i plan on going with the puree.. do i just put it in the bottom and rack on top? do i have to mix it up or will it just naturally mix?

i was told if i used frozen raspberries i would have to stir it for about a week to make sure it mixed well... just wanna make sure the flavoring goes throughout the whole batch.

BeerLuvnGrl said:

ok now a question about the fruit...if i plan on going with the puree.. do i just put it in the bottom and rack on top? do i have to mix it up or will it just naturally mix?

i was told if i used frozen raspberries i would have to stir it for about a week to make sure it mixed well... just wanna make sure the flavoring goes throughout the whole batch.

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Oh yeah. A lot of people use real fruit. I was just comenting that Pumbaa just had some challenging with real fruit. You might want to PM him, he doesn't bite

I've made three batches of fruit ales. The first was with extract. It was just OK. The second was with blueberries. I used a little over two pounds of them (five gallon batches). This came out nice, more like a hint than a real strong flavoring. My current batch is raspberry again, but this time using actual raspberries. I used about four pounds, and the flavor is very good - beery but also a strong fruit taste. Raspberries are pretty versatile and go great in beer.

So you have to decide how strong you would like the fruit taste to be. Three pounds might be a nice middle ground.

This is how I've done it. I've pasteurized my whole fruit - put in a pot with some water, enough to cover them, and heat them to just short of a boil, break the skins, then add them into the secondary. The cut off top of a two liter soda bottle works great as a funnel for this. I never stirred anything, and I in general don't think you should intervene in your brew process any more than is absolutely necessary.

I let them sit in there for a week (you will see how washed out looking the fruit gets), then rerack to a tertiary and let it clear for another week or two.

For the extract batch, I just added the extract into the bottling bucket right out of the bottle. No color from extract I used though, which is one of the things I like about using real fruit.

Finally, if you have not read over this thread, do so - lots of good info here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=5084